Treaty of June 28, 1862

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at the agency of the Kickapoo tribe of Indians, on the 28th day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, by and between Charles B. Keith, commissioner, on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Kickapoo Nation, on behalf of said nation.

Article 1.The Kickapoo tribe of Indians, believing that it will contribute to the civilization of their people to dispose of a portion of their present reservation in Kansas, consisting of one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, to allot land in severalty to those members of said tribe who desire to have separate tracts of lands, and have adopted the customs of the whites, and to set apart for the others of said tribe a portion of said reservation, to be held by them in common, or (if a majority of them so elect) provide for them a suitable home elsewhere, to be held by them in common, it is therefore hereby agreed that the Secretary of the Interior shall cause the whole of said reservation to be surveyed in the same manner as the public lands are surveyed, and the quantity of land hereinafter mentioned to be set apart to those of said tribe who desire to have their land in severalty; and, if so elected by a majority of the others of said tribe, the quantity of land hereinafter mentioned to be by such others held in common, and the remainder of the land, after the special reservations hereinafter provided for shall have been made, to be sold for the benefit of said tribe.

Article 2.It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to cause to be made an accurate census of all the members of the tribe, and to classify them in separate lists, showing the names, ages, and numbers of those desiring lands in severalty, and of those desiring lands in common, designating chiefs and heads of families respectively; each adult choosing for himself or herself, and each head of a family for the minor children of such family, and the agent for orphans and persons of an unsound mind and otherwise incompetent, as to which of these classes they will belong. And thereupon shall be assigned, under the direction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to each chief, at the signing of the treaty, one half section; to each other head of a family, one quarter section; and to each other person, forty acres of land; to include in every case as far as practicable, to each family, their improvements and a reasonable portion of timber, to be selected according to the legal subdivision of survey. When such assignments shall have been completed, certificates shall be issued by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the tracts assigned in severalty, specifying the names of the individuals to whom they have been assigned respectively, and that said tracts are set apart for the perpetual and exclusive use and benefit of such assignees and their heirs. Until otherwise provided by law, such tracts shall be exempt from levy, taxation, or sale, and shall be alienable in fee, or leased, or otherwise disposed of only to the United States, or to persons then being members of the Kickapoo tribe, and of Indian blood, with the permission of the President, and under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior shall provide, except as may be hereinafter provided. And on receipt of such certificates, the person[s] to whom they are issued shall be deemed to have relinquished all right to any portion of the lands assigned to others in severalty, or to a portion of the tribe in common, and to the proceeds of sale of the same whensoever made.

Article 3.At any time hereafter, when the President of the United States shall have become satisfied that any adults, being males and heads of families, who may be allottees under the provision of the foregoing article, are sufficiently intelligent and prudent to control their affairs and interests, he may, at the request of such persons, cause the lands severally held by them to be conveyed to them by patent in fee-simple, with power of alienation; and may, at the same time, cause to be set apart and placed to their credit severally, their proportion of the cash value of the credits of the tribe, principal and interest, then held in trust by the United States, and also, as the same may be received, their proportion of the proceeds of the sale of lands under the provisions of this treaty. And on such patents being issued, and such payments ordered to be made by the President, such competent persons shall cease to be members of said tribe, and shall become citizens of the United States; and thereafter the lands so patented to them shall be subject to levy, taxation, and sale, in like manner with the property of other citizens: Provided, That, before making any such application to the President, they shall appear in open court, in the district court of the United States for the district of Kansas, and make the same proof and take the same oath of allegiance as is provided by law for the naturalization of aliens; and shall also make proof, to the satisfaction of said court, that they are sufficiently intelligent and prudent to control their affairs and interests; that they have adopted the habits of civilized life, and have been able to support, for at least five years, themselves and families.

Article 4.To those members of said tribe who desire to hold their lands in common, there shall be set apart from the present reservation of the tribe an undivided quantity, sufficient to allow one half section to each chief, one quarter section to each other head of family, and forty acres to each other person, and said land shall be held by that portion of the tribe for whom it is set apart by the same tenure as the whole reserve has been held by all of said tribe under the treaty of 1854. And upon such land being assigned in common, the persons to whom it is assigned shall be held to have relinquished all title to lands assigned in severalty, and in the proceeds of sales thereof whenever made; or should a majority of the adult males of said class decide to remove to the Indian country south of Kansas, then, and in that case, their new home shall not be limited to the quantity above designated, but shall be as large as can be purchased with the proceeds of the sale of the tract to which they would have been entitled had they determined to remain upon the present reservation, computing the same at the rate of at least one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre: Provided, That the purchase of such new home shall be made by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and at such locality within said Indian country as he may select: And provided also, That such new home shall be purchased and the Indians entitled removed thereto, within the period of two years after the completion of the survey herein provided for. And such Indians shall be entitled to the benefits of their full proportionate share of all assets belonging to said tribe, in the same manner that they would have been entitled had such removal not been made, deducting there from the necessary expenses of their removal.

Article 5.The Kickapoo tribe of Indians, entertaining the opinion that it is the desire of the Government and the people of the United States to extend railroad communication as far west as possible in the shortest possible time, and believing that it will greatly enhance the value of their lands reserved in severalty by having a railroad built, connecting with the eastern railroads running from the city of Atchison, in the State of Kansas, westerly in the direction of the gold mines in Colorado Territory; and entertaining the opinion that the Atchison and Pike’s Peak Railroad Company, incorporated by an act of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Kansas, approved February 11, 1859, has advantages for travel and transportation over all other companies, it is therefore provided that the Atchison and Pike’s Peak Railroad Company shall have the privilege of buying the remainder of their land within six months after the tracts herein otherwise disposed of shall have been selected and set apart, provided said railroad company purchase the whole of such surplus lands at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; and when the selections shall have been made and assigned as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to notify the president of said railroad company thereof; and if said railroad company signifies its consent to purchase said surplus lands within sixty days thereafter, and shall make, execute, and deliver to the Secretary of the Interior the bonds of the said company in a penal sum equal to double the value of said surplus lands as heretofore ascertained, with the condition that the said bonds shall become void whenever the said company shall comply with the conditions of the treaty, the Secretary of the Interior shall issue to said railroad company certificates of purchase, and such certificates shall be deemed and held in all courts as evidence of the right of possession in said railroad company to all or any part of said lands, unless the same shall be forfeited as hereinafter provided. And if said railroad company make such purchase, it shall be subject to the following considerations, viz: They shall construct and fully equip a good and efficient railroad from the city of Atchison, in the State of Kansas, westerly, within six years, and as follows: The first section of fifteen miles of said road to be completed within three years from the date of said purchase, and the second section to a point as far west as the western boundary of said reservation within three years thereafter; and no patent or patents shall issue to said company or its assigns for any portion of said lands until the first section of said road shall be completed, and then for not more than one-half of said lands; and no patent or patents shall issue to said company or its assigns for any of the remaining portion of said lands until said second section of said railroad shall be completed as aforesaid; and before any patents shall issue for any part of said lands, payments shall be made for the lands to be patented at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. And said company shall pay the whole amount of the purchase-money for said lands in the securities of the United States to the Secretary of the Interior, in trust for said Kickapoo tribe of Indians, within six years from the date of such purchase; and when so paid the president is authorized hereby to issue patents therefore. Said company shall, in like manner, pay to the Secretary of the Interior, in trust as aforesaid, each and every year, until the whole purchase-money shall have been paid, interest from date of purchase, at six per cent. per annum, on all the purchase-money remaining unpaid. Said interest, and the interest due on the purchase-money after it is paid to the United States, shall be held in trust and paid to said Indians on the first day of April of each and every year; and in ten years from the ratification of this treaty there shall be paid by the United States to said tribe of Indians ten thousand dollars, as their first installment upon the amount of said purchase-money, and ten thousand dollars each and every year thereafter until all is paid.
Article 6.In case said railroad company shall fail to complete either section of said railroad in a good and efficient manner, or shall fail to pay the whole of the purchase-money for said lands within the time herein prescribed, or shall fail to pay all or any part of the interest upon the same each year as aforesaid, within thirty days from the date when such payment of interest may fall due, then the contract or purchase shall be deemed and held absolutely null and void, if the Secretary of the Interior shall so determine, and said company or its assigns shall forfeit all payments of principal and interest made on such purchase, and all right and title, legal and equitable, of any kind whatsoever, in and to all and every part of said lands which shall not have been before the date of such forfeiture earned and paid for pursuant to the provisions of this treaty. And whenever any patents shall issue to said railroad company for any part of said lands, it shall contain the condition that the said company shall sell the lands described in such patent, except so much as shall be necessary for the working of the road, within five years from the issuing of such patent. And said company shall have the perpetual right of way over the lands of the Kickapoos not sold to it for the construction and operation of said railroad, not exceeding one hundred feet in width, and the right to enter on said lands and take and use such gravel, stone, earth, water, and other material, except timber, as may be necessary for the construction and operation of the said road, making compensation for any damages to improvements caused by obtaining such material, and for any damages arising from the location or running of said road, to improvements made before the road was located; such damages and compensation, in cases where said company and the persons whose improvements are injured or the property taken cannot agree, to be ascertained and adjusted under the direction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. And in case said company shall not promptly pay the amount of such damages and compensation, the Secretary of the Interior may withhold patents for any part of the lands purchased by them until payment be made of the amount of such damages, with six per cent. interest thereon from the date when the same, not including improvements, shall have been ascertained and demanded; and in case said company shall not purchase said surplus lands, or having purchased, shall forfeit the whole or any part thereof, the Secretary of the Interior shall thereupon cause the same to be appraised at not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and shall sell the same in quantities not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres at auction, to the highest bidder for cash, at not less than [the] appraised value: Provided, however, In case any of said lands have been conveyed to bona-fide purchasers by said railroad company, such purchasers shall be entitled to a patent for said lands so purchased by them on payment to the United States in trust for said Kickapoos of the appraised value thereof, (exclusive of their improvements,) and not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre therefore, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. On the purchase of said lands by the said railroad company the same shall become a part of the State of Kansas, but none of said lands shall be subject to taxation until the patents have been issued therefore.

Article 7. [Stricken out.]

Article 8. [Stricken out.]

Article 9. [Stricken out.]

Article 10.Whereas some years since a portion of the Kickapoos went down among the Southern Indians, and there is reason to believe that but few, if any, of them will ever return, and they having been notified of the provisions of this treaty, it is hereby agreed that they shall receive no benefits arising there from, unless they return to the present reservation of the Kickapoos within one year from the ratification of this treaty, in which case it is hereby agreed that forty acres each be allotted to them, with the understanding that they will occupy, improve, and cultivate the same, and in every respect to be governed by the same rules and regulations as is prescribed for the government of the lands reserved by the preceding articles.

Article 11.There shall be reserved six hundred and forty acres of land to be selected by the chiefs of said tribe of Kickapoos as a site for a saw and grist mill, three hundred and twenty acres where the mission-house now is, and one hundred and sixty acres where the house built for the agency now is, which, with the improvements thereupon, shall be disposed of when the objects for which they have been reserved shall have been accomplished, in such a manner and for such purposes as may be provided by law.

Article 12. [Stricken out.]

Article 13.In as much as it was provided by the treaty between the United States and said Kickapoos, entered into on the 18th day of May, A. D. 1854, that the President may cause to be surveyed, in the same manner that the public lands are surveyed, the reservation provided for the Kickapoos, it is agreed that the expense of said surveys shall be paid by the United States out of the proceeds of sales of said lands, and all expenses incident to the negotiation and execution of this treaty, and not otherwise provided for, shall be defrayed by the Kickapoos; the same to be deducted from any funds applicable to that purpose now or hereafter held for them in trust by the United States.

Article 14.It is further agreed that all rights, title, and interest of the Kickapoos in their present reservation shall cease, and the same is hereby ceded to and vested in the United States, subject to the limitations and for the purposes herein expressed and provided for.

Article 15.Any stipulation in former treaties inconsistent with those embraced in the foregoing articles shall be of no force or effect.

Article 16.Should the Senate reject or amend any of the foregoing articles, such rejection or amendment shall not affect the other provisions of this treaty, but the same shall go into effect when ratified and approved.

In testimony whereof, the said Charles B. Keith, commissioner as aforesaid, and the undersigned chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Kickapoo Tribe of Indians, have hereunto set their hands and seals, at the place, on the day, and in the year hereinbefore written.

Charles B. Keith, Commissioner on behalf of the United States
Chief Par-thee, or the Elk Chief, his x mark
Chief Pah-kah-kah, or John Kennekuk, his x mark
Chief Mack-a-tair-chee-qua, or Black Thunder, his x mark
Ken-ne-kuk, or Stephen Pen-sion-eau, his x mark
Mah-mah-she-cow-ah, or Bear Track, her x mark
Pet-ti-quauk, or Rolling Thunder, his x mark
John C. Anderson
Toth-way, or Frank Cadue, his x mark

John E. Badger
H. C. Pursel
Nelson S. Shaler
Paschall Pensioneau, his x mark, United States Interpreter
W. D. Barnett, witness to signature of Paschall Pensioneau